Good morning. Can you all hear me? So this is July 4th weekend. And I'm going to talk today about Independence Day or Interdependence Day and your connectedness day, which I think of as an American Buddhist holiday. And every year I talk about the American ideal of freedom, And it's complementary Buddhist idea of liberation and Bodhisattva principles. So the United States ideal includes freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from government oppression. Slogan for the American Revolution that led to the Declaration of Independence was no taxation without representation. So the colonists did not want to be taxed by King George since they weren't represented in the parliament.

[01:08]

Does everyone feel like you're represented in the American government now? Very good question. Buddhist liberation, complimentary, is freedom from self-grasping, freedom from seeing outside objects and grabbing at outside objects separate from us to acknowledge interconnectedness, interconnection, interdependence. Buddhist liberation means enjoying and expressing possibilities of wholeness and healing. We enact that through Sangha, through community. On the 4th of July, my responsibility as a Bodhisattva clergy is to speak about our country from the perspective of Bodhisattva values, from ethical values. So I feel obligated to speak difficult truths, and I'll wait till the siren passes.

[02:22]

So we must speak of difficult, painful truths in this crucial, chaotic time. So I have a lot to say. Try and get it all in. I also hope to speak about positive, hopeful aspects of interdependence day. So I'll start with this Dogen quote from his extensive record that I've been repeating a lot. The family style of all Buddhas and ancestors is to first arouse, bow, to save all living beings. By removing suffering and providing joy, only this family style is inexhaustibly bright and clear. So our function as practitioners is to remove suffering, provide joy. This is our family tradition.

[03:36]

I'll repeat the next part of what Dogen says. In the lofty mountains, we see the moon for a long time. As clouds clear, we first recognize the sky. Cast loose down the precipice, the moonlight reflected in the stream shares itself with the 10,000 forms. Even when climbing up the bird's path, taking good care of yourself is spiritual power. So we need to take care of ourselves and to take care of each other and express this awareness we taste in Zazen for all beings. So thinking about the Fourth of July, I used to quote Tom Jefferson a lot. He was a great writer. I no longer think of him as a hero. He owned and fathered slaves, and through the Louisiana Purchase, he spread genocide of Native Americans.

[04:42]

But he said some good things that represent the ideals that America has never quite lived up to. He, quote, vowed eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the human mind. This is a good Bodhisattva saying. He said, the price of liberation is ongoing vigilance. Great slogan for Zazen. Actually, he said the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, but I'll paraphrase it slightly. He also said in the early 1800s, I hope we crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a true trial by strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country. That was in the early 1800s. Now, money corporations rule our governments.

[05:45]

Black politicians take control of government, especially the fossil fuel corporations, the weapons corporations, the pharmaceutical corporations, and others. Someone else I think of to quote is Frederick Douglass. Later in 1852, on July 5th, he gave a talk, What to the Slaves is the Fourth of July. The speech was given at the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Association. It's a very long talk, I'm going to give just a few brief excerpts. So Douglass, Frederick Douglass had been a slave but had been freed and was a leading abolitionist. This address was, of course, before the Civil War, before the Emancipation Proclamation, before Juneteenth, when slaves were finally supposedly free. So he said in part, what have I or those I represent to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us?

[06:58]

speaking for the slaves. The character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on his fourth of July. Do I need to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men and beings, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters. This was what slavery was like in 1852. Dubois continued, the conscience of the nation must be roused. The propriety of the nation must be startled. hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and its crimes must be proclaimed and denounced.

[08:02]

There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour. So again, he said that in 1852, 170 years ago. Now, 2022, We still have mass incarceration in which prisoners very disproportionately Black are forced to work for little or no wages akin to slavery. Now we have murders of unarmed Black people after traffic stops by police. I saw that there was somebody, Black man in Toledo, who was shot 60 times by the police this week. Now white supremacy terrorism is supported by many politicians. A new Illinois congressperson said after the Supreme Court abolition of Roe v. Wade, this is a great day for white lives. So now we are in an age of multiple crises.

[09:04]

Along with the racist attacks like in Buffalo, Democracy is under serious threat from politicians who support the vowed fascist. White supremacy terrorists, including, and by white supremacy terrorists, this includes massive voter suppression schemes enhanced by the Supreme Court and probably soon to be enhanced on steroids. January 6th, 2021, we came very close to a coup and right-wing takeover of our government. This threat is ongoing. The January 6th hearings by Congress are very important. I encourage you to watch them to understand what is happening, not just what happened on January 6th, but what continues to happen. We also have climate catastrophes everywhere.

[10:14]

There's record heat in the Southwest, cold Arctic areas have had record heat, permafrost is melting, methane released. Climate catastrophes around the world are most damaging to minorities and oppressed people, black people in this country, indigenous people everywhere around the world, and to our natural world. Forests and rivers are threatened. creating major food shortages and mass migrations. So there's a whole lot more to be said about climate and climate change, but we'll come back to that a little bit. We'll wait again for the sirens. We are sitting in the midst of this world of difficulty. We're also threatened by United States militarism and war profiteers who are increasing nuclear weapons and the danger of nuclear war.

[11:25]

The Ukraine war is difficult. The Russian invasion is horrible. But our government is making it harder to come to some peace there. 53% or more of the United States annual national budget, it's probably more now, goes to the military. More than 20 companies are currently involved in producing nuclear weapons. Many companies are making billions of dollars selling weapons systems to dictators around the world, for example, Saudi Arabia. Just to name a few of the major weapons profiteers making many billions of dollars in the past few years, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Honeywell International, Lockheed. On this interdependent state, there are many threats. But perhaps the greatest threat to our lives and freedom now is from the illegitimate and cruel United States Supreme Court majority.

[12:40]

Their membership was cynically manipulated not allow Merrick Garland to be considered a leader before Obama left office and who forced Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court judge just a week before the elections. So the recent abolition of Roe and the attack on women's reproductive rights, it's about power, not life. portends an attempted anti-democratic takeover of our country in progress. This ruling will lead to the death and damage of many, many, many women. But the end of row is not only a woman's issue. All of us are involved.

[13:44]

The members of the court have explicitly threatened to outlaw all contraception and to outlaw same-sex marriage. After that, they may well outlaw all LGBT people and outlaw interracial marriage. The whole right to privacy is severely in danger. This court seeks control over our bodies, our bedrooms. Our basic social safety net is in danger. This was something that was created, developed, a lot of it, but it was part of the promise of So to privilege the rights of the fetus is just bizarre.

[14:57]

If this was truly pro-life, as they call themselves, there would be measures for good childcare to protect those newborn. There would be good healthcare for mothers and children. And also there would be good public education for post-fetus children. What about pro-life people caring for the right to life of endangered species in the midst of a mass extinction? Why are they not talking about protecting the life of our planet? In fact, this court is attacking all these lines. Hypocrisy is immense. Certainly this ruling will most deeply injure Black, Hispanic, Indigenous women and all those without the means to travel to other states where abortion is allowed.

[16:08]

Those who control our government are also enacting massive voter suppression around the world. around the country, and that will affect the whole world. Supreme Court is also part of this. They're also working to obliterate the right to study our country's history, to even know about slavery, the history of slavery and racism. So in addition to abolishing the road we laid, President, our supremely lawless court has enhanced our climate catastrophes this last Thursday by severely limiting the Environmental Protection Agency and their ability to place carbon emission caps on fossil fuel power plants.

[17:16]

Wildfires, hurricanes, floods are spreading around the world, and the United States Supreme Court is trying to enforce that we not do anything to limit fossil fuel. Justice Elena Kagan slammed the decision in a minority dissent, quote, whatever else this court may know about, it does not know, it does not have a clue about how to address climate change. The court appoints itself instead of Congress or the expert agency to the decision maker on climate policy. I cannot think many things more frightening." New York Congressman Jamal Bowman said, quote, this is yet another vicious power grab. If we let them get away with it, people will die. Because of the reasoning used by the justices of this climate ruling.

[18:25]

This ruling could potentially undermine all kinds of regulations that are about saving lives and promoting well-being. All government regulation and regulatory processes are at severe risk now. This ruling comes at a time when climate scientists are urging rich nations to significantly cut down greenhouse gas emissions and divest from fossil fuels. And we have the technology to use alternative energies like solar and wind and take care of our energy needs. This decision not only impacts the United States, but it will reverberate around the world. The fossil fuel industry has studied and fully understood since the 1970s how their business model is creating climate breakdown.

[19:28]

But instead of adjusting and responding to that, the fossil fuel industry has spent many millions of dollars working to produce this ruling to attack any kind of alternative energy. This Supreme Court... As the siren passes us, it's an ambulance. Hope it's not going to the victim of gun violence because the Supreme Court is also increasing gun violence with rulings to allow everyone to freely carry any weapon they wish. They're working toward everyone having the right to carry assault rifles. Everyone has said this.

[20:31]

Perhaps most seriously, next term, the Supreme Court are likely to rule that state legislatures can decide the winner of presidential elections and pick the electoral electors for their So I speak of this not to talk about quote unquote politics, but to talk about what is the reality of removing suffering and promoting joy in our world? This is in accord with the Bodhisattva vows we will chant later.

[21:40]

This all involves social ethical issues in our world, which are applications of our Bodhisattva precepts. If we're truly concerned about diversity, we must respond to racist policies spreading. We may respond in various ways. As each of us sees fit, I'm not here to promote any particular tactic or strategy, but to inform and to encourage all of us to share this awareness. But we might join demonstrations. We might contact our Congress people. And it's very important to vote. as long as that right remains. It will remain at least a name only in midterm elections. We'll see how they count the votes. Just speaking out strongly about all this to government officials and to the media and to our friends and family members when possible keeps all of it in awareness.

[22:58]

And awareness itself is transformative. This is not over. We're in a very dangerous situation on this interdependence day. But we can respond. We can change. We need to persist in working for justice and basic decency. This is the critical ethical issue now. Interdependence means we are all connected. everyone throughout the country, everyone throughout the world, and not just human beings, the birds who are singing outside the window here at Ebenezer Church. We're connected. Our actions and speech can change the current situation. We can express awakening visions of kindness, of cooperation,

[24:07]

of universal healing, of true peace. This world does not need to be this way. Humans can cooperate, recognize our interconnectedness, and encourage kindness, peacefulness, healing, and peace. It's a lie that all humans have to have wars. That's our history. But in prehistory, anthropologists and archaeologists are discovering that there was a time when wars were not necessary for human beings. So for Bodhisattva practitioners, for all of us, Right now is the very best time to be alive. As dangerous as it is.

[25:12]

Because our actions and body, speech, and mind can make the biggest, most consequential difference now. We are most needed now. We're not alone. What we do will make a difference. What we say will make a difference. We don't necessarily know the outcomes. But our efforts, our acts of kindness, our response to the threat of total control by government and by the Supreme Court, our response will make a difference. There are massive protests around the country now against the Supreme Court ruling on Rome. As more of these rulings come out, ruling against the climate this Thursday and more, people all over the country and all over the world are speaking out.

[26:27]

So how may we help to transform the hatred and cruelty now prevailing in our society? Hatred doesn't end by more hatred. We need to remember interconnectedness and not make some people into others. We have to not make into others people from different races, or different countries, or different religions. They are not other. We are all deeply interconnected. LGBT people are not other. They're connected. Women are not other. Despite the Supreme Court's majorities, the proclamation of that effect. Even the cruel politicians and judges are not other.

[27:48]

I hope they may be disarmed from their power and their spreading of cruelty. But their attitudes are warnings about our own misguided tendencies. This Ebenezer Church Zendo is wonderful, especially with all the windows open, because we can hear sirens, fire trucks, ambulances going to try to help respond to people who are suffering. So as I was saying, even the cruel politicians and judges causing so much harm are not others.

[29:03]

They're warnings to each of us to look at our own tendencies towards seeing separation, towards seeing some people as other, trying to control everything, trying to exert our power to force our views on others. May we practice with our own anger, to transform our anger into clear seeing, transform our anger into determination to look for ways to be helpful. We may skillfully employ our own hurt and anger to work for contexts that go beyond hatred. There's so much negativity in our world now.

[30:15]

And we can't just cover it over with some happy smile. We can't use our Zazen to run away from it. Our Zazen gives us awareness of other possibilities, of connection, of kindness, of wholeness, of being ourselves. But we also must face the challenges of the world, the challenges to our own lives. All of this also applies to our personal pharmac issues. Each of us has our own situations of separation, of hatred, of damage. within our circles of friends and family. How can we transform the situation, the situations?

[31:23]

How can we enact personal transformation? Because of this interdependence, we are able to study the self, as Dogen recommends, to receive Sangha support to study the self, That's what we're all doing here this morning, whether we're here at Ebenezer Church or online. We can become intimate with the self, to see our own patterns of making some people into others, of aversion, to not be caught by our patterns, by our attachments and our patterns of reactivity. All of this is the personal side of what I've been talking about, about Independence Day. This applies to all the damages now in our country, but also to our own, our own confusion.

[32:28]

We do not know the outcomes of our practice. of our work to benefit beings. The outcomes are not set as much as Mitch McConnell and the Supreme Court might want to think they can control them. We can apply our bodhisattva vow to respond appropriately as we each see best to help spread kindness in our world. And as I said before, kindness doesn't mean just being nice and excusing the damage that some people are causing. You can address it without making them into others. So we all have a lot of work, but again,

[33:34]

As another siren goes to respond to people in trouble, again, we can express our deepest fullness. We can work for kindness and healing. And we can address all of the damages being done. So maybe I've said enough. That's a lot to cover. But I felt the need to say this. I felt obliged to say, to talk about all this on 4th of July weekend on Independence Interdependence Day. So I'm interested in hearing your comments or questions. David Ray, would you please? If there's anyone who has comments or questions or anybody here in Ebenezer, just raise your hand.

[34:53]

If you're on Zoom, you can use the raise hand function or just raise your own hand if you're visible on the screen. Yes, Eve. Can you speak more loudly, please, so the Zoom people can hear you? Could you say more about awareness and being transformative? Yes. Yes. If we were not aware of what the Supreme Court was doing, we could not respond to it. We could not change it. For example, just to be aware of these particular societal issues, but also to be aware of our own responses, to be aware of the people around us, to be aware of the fear and suffering of those who want to try and control the world and want to try and protect white lives only.

[36:16]

What's their fear? So to be aware is just a whole realm of awareness. We have to be aware of what is happening in our country. Many of you I know ration your news watching. And sometimes it's a lot to take in. And so it's okay to ration it so that you can take care of yourself. But we need to stay aware of the things that are happening in some way and respond. And also aware of our own feelings, our own anger, our own hurt, our own fear. How do we not let that get in the way of responding wholesomely? hopefully, when we see some way to respond.

[37:19]

And there's lots to respond to. So just to be aware, it changes the whole situation. Other comments or questions, please? Hi, Brian. Morning. Thank you for an excellent, comprehensive talk. Some things that brought to my mind, one of my practices I've done for a long try to focus based on what he was saying about awareness and the response. So, one of the things that we try to do most in the Dharma is focus on being aware of our minds. And the Heart Sutra, it lists, Avalokiteshvara says, you know, became clearly aware of the emptiness of the skandhas. in my mind the current situation as if it's some very heavy, dark, monolithic thing, which I'm not denying that there are a lot of dark forces, but when one allows that perception to fill one's entire mind, I think that it can be very unmotivating and depressive, I think, for a lot of people.

[38:50]

And unfortunately, I think that reification of perception of the current situation can demotivate enough people that maybe they don't do those actions that you recommended. And so I think a very useful thing to do is to always watch your mind for how it's creating a solidifying of current events or a certain event as, you know, ultimate that we, you know, that's insurmountable, or that feeling gets created. And so with using the emptiness to sort of poke holes into that and to take a look at it from different sides, you start to see that there's a lot of things that can be done, a lot of people that are trying to do these things. And one excellent thing I'm always reminded of, stemming back to 9-11,

[39:52]

We all know that the towers came down due to the planes, and it seemed like evil was winning and evil was everywhere. And there was an essay written by Stephen Jay Gould, a Harvard paleontologist, called The Time of Gifts, in which he highlighted this phenomenon. He said that evil always gets the headlines, and therefore creates a perception in us that evil is everywhere and that it's winning. And yet, if we to the surrounding scene, you're always going to see helpers. You're always going to see thousands upon thousands of people who never make the headlines who are doing good things to help. Firemen that drove across multiple state lines to help out at Ground Zero, et cetera. People bringing food and water to Ground Zero, et cetera. So that's, to reiterate and emphasize what you're saying, It's really not a time to be depressed as much as a time for a call to action.

[41:01]

Whatever we can do, even if it's a conversation in a coffee shop, to slightly change someone's mind about something, you never know the ripple effect that's going to have. Right, right. So thank you, Brian. Two things. I want to respond to what you were saying about change and not being overcome by the difficulties of the situation. But first, I just wanted to mention, you said in the beginning of what you said that Buddhism is about the mind. My intention was that one of our main... Yeah, let me respond please. So I just want to point out that Buddhism is about body, speech, and mind. So Zazen is something we do physically. This is a physical practice. It's not intellectual. It's not about thoughts or ideas. It's a physical practice of sitting upright, being upright, breathing, sitting like Buddha, allowing the Buddha in our body line to respond.

[42:11]

And also speech is important too. How do we talk about situation. So that's what we're doing now. But I take what you were saying to emphasize how our mind can't cause us to be paralyzed. And so to respond to most of what you were talking about, I very much agree and I talk about this. Change happens. This is a very dark time. There have been previous dark times. Change happens. The Supreme Court may be trying to overthrow this, but gay marriage was legalized by a previous Supreme Court, for example. Apartheid was ended in South Africa, for example. The Soviet Union collapsed and the Berlin Wall came down. when experts on these situations would not have imagined it just a month before.

[43:18]

So there is change. The colonies revolted and were no longer part of Great Britain. So there are many examples. Change happens. It's not realistic to feel like there's nothing we can do. What we do change helps to change things. Many, many, many things over many years went into, for example, women being allowed to vote, which didn't happen until the early 20th century. But that was a result of decades and decades of women calling for the right to vote. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a product of the Civil Rights Movement and many people over many years working for justice. So yes, right. It's change is possible. It's important to remember that. So thank you. It was the outcome of our practice and our efforts and our work and of the Supreme Courts.

[44:29]

I don't know what to say. Damages, villainy, majority. The outcomes of all that are not set, it's changed eventually. And that only happens when we work at it. And now women and men all around the country are out in the streets protesting. And that needs to continue. And such protests need to continue about Roe v. Wade, but also about the Supreme Court trying to destroy our climate, about the Supreme Court and some politicians trying to destroy democracy. If we just feel hopeless and give up, that helps them. Silence is complicity. So thank you, Brian. Yes, there is a lot we can do, and there's a lot we need to do. Other comments or questions?

[45:32]

Anybody on Zoom, David? Not at the moment. OK. I wanted to bring up three incidents. Joanna Macy and her colleague- Excuse me, Eve, can you hear her back there? Okay, yeah, please speak. Joanna Macy and her colleague were on Zoom for, I believe it was two hours. I believe it was the 20th of June. I'm not sure of the day, but I was there for two hours. I heard part of it. It was great. She said, aren't we lucky to be alive at this time in history? Yes. I'm just thinking, the Chinese curse, may you be born in interesting times, which I thought was a curse, but she turned it around to say,

[46:34]

We're very lucky to be alive when all this is happening. That was the first thing I wanted to bring up. And just to say, yes, and for Bodhisattvas, this is the very, very best time to be alive. This is the time when our practice can make the most difference to the world. Yes. Continue, Jane. And I'm trying to think of the second one I was going to bring up. Oh, I'll regret not being able to remember it right now. Come back to it. But okay, but the third one I wanted to talk about was one day I had a little boy about seven or eight years old. He was my son and we were going downtown together on the L train. I hope I haven't told this too many times. I haven't heard it. Okay, we were going past the apartment houses that are, you know, the face on the L. And I was just thinking to myself, I'm so glad I don't live here.

[47:36]

This train goes by, you know, every five, 10 minutes, all day long. And my son said to me, aren't these people lucky, mama? They get to see the train every day. It just made me laugh so much because it was diametrically opposed to the way I was responding to going past these places. And I've forgotten the second one. OK. When it comes back to you, let us know. So anybody on Zoom with comments or questions? No, but I have a question. David Ray, yes. I wonder if you would say more about focused action and activism. You talked about working. with anger in regards to producing clarity of perception. At the same time, it seems that opposition requires action that, how can I say it, dares to be hand-handed, dares to do the strategic thing that might produce a result in the world.

[48:49]

And it seems that this might be a moment for that. Yeah, strong action, opposition to cruelty, does not require hatred. Our precept says, do not harbor ill will. Do not turn anger into hatred. So I have to say, I don't hate Mitch McConnell, despite all of the damage that he's introduced to our country. I don't hate him personally. I don't know him. I've never met him. I don't know Kathy. She's a senator from Kentucky. I don't know if he's ever met him. But I know people who don't. So Kathy knows people who don't. So we can oppose the actions of people. We can oppose the policies of this horrible current Supreme Court, or at least the majority of them.

[49:50]

There's some good people in the minority anyway. We can oppose policies. We can oppose actions. Anger or hatred. I used to be a, well, I was a, my political activism goes back to the 60s and the Vietnam War and civil rights. And, you know, I went, I've gone to many demonstrations where there were very angry chants and I just stayed quiet during those. We don't have to buy into anger in order to oppose persecution of women. the persecution of LGBT people, the persecution of Blacks and other minorities. We can act to help people without hatred. That's difficult, you know, because I confess I'm angry about what the Supreme Court's doing.

[50:51]

But anger itself is not counter to the bodhisattva work. It's what we do with it. Do we turn it into hatred and trying to harm others before they harm us or whatever? Or do we use that energy, tremendous energy in anger, to see clearly what is going on? What are the dynamics that are at work? and also to commit ourselves to trying to respond. That energy of anger can be a tremendous incentive to look to see how to be helpful in the situation. So, you know, that kind of opposition to cruelty requires, you know, it's supported by our practice, sitting zazen, sometimes for days at a time or for many minutes at a time, gives us some possibility of steadiness, of calm, seeing clearly.

[52:17]

Not that this happens automatically, but we can be present to body, speech, and mind. It's not just our thinking, it's also that anger event energy of anger and so forth, it's physical. So part of studying the self is to see when we feel some anger, where is it in our body? Is it in our shoulders, elbows, thighs, belly, back? Feel it. Feel what you feel. I haven't, I used to recommend as a mantra and a go on, A line from my favorite poet, who says, how does it feel? So feel what you feel. Feelings themselves are not bad. What do we do with them? How do we see them?

[53:19]

How do we not be caught by them? How does it feel? So I've recommended that as a mantra. So that's not just intellectual. That's physical. Yes, Cathy. I just wanted to follow up on Brian's comment. Louder, please. I wanted to follow up on Brian's comment and the interest you've expressed here. Sorry. What's happened, I think, is I have felt sort of shut down. And I've talked to other people experiencing the same thing so much that you kind of feel overwhelmed on it. And it does make me think, how do you shift out of that? And I resonate with what you're saying, Brian. I feel like it takes us examining closely how we got into this situation.

[54:24]

I do think it's strategic. And I think it was more than just one third. And I think that it was a potential. We do have some good minds out there who are attempting to counter this. You know, I think of Stacey Abrams. I think of her as somebody who has assessed and found some ways to counter gerrymandering. I also think of her when I think of what can I do because you can she offers ways to volunteer or to you know it's like what she's doing I think it's important in terms of trying to shift. And so I guess the other thing is I value Jane Goodall in that she looks at

[55:30]

happen to the environment. But she's also talking about, in a book that she wrote, people who are making attempts to counter that. Efforts that have been successful in making some returns. It certainly has not stopped the climate damage, but maybe it has slowed it down. But looking at those projects give us a clue For me, I heard Sierra Club is a good lobbyist in terms of protecting the environment. I'm sorry, I missed that. I heard that Sierra Club is a good lobbyist. So therefore, I want to support them. And I wrote letters to them to try to get my collective

[56:35]

do you think those grassroots efforts make a difference? Yes. When I took these letters to the post office, I encountered two other women carrying bags of letters from different organizations and got elected, not because three of us write much, but because there is a grassroots movement. And I think those things are important to look at and figure out where to put our energy, where it can be the most strategic. Thank you so much, Kathleen. Yes, there is a great danger of feeling overwhelmed, of shutting down. But sawsan and bodhisattva practice is about staying open and aware. And yes, there are many examples, many examples of people who are doing really effective, helpful work.

[57:38]

Sierra Club's one. and the environment for freedom, ACLU. I just wanted to mention, going back to what Bryant was saying about 9-11, there's a book by a wonderful writer named Rebecca Solnit, who's also a Zen practitioner and who has spoken at Ancient Dragon. Go to the podcast and write in Rebecca Solnit. Okay, you'll find her in the top, you can find her talks. She wrote one of her books, I can't remember the title, but it was about when there are calamities, hurricanes, earthquakes, and how people band together and help. This is a natural impulse and it happens. 9-11 was one example, but Katrina was another. She goes back and talks about the 1901

[58:41]

other historical examples, when there are big problems, people respond. And as Kathy was saying, we can find groups that look like they are doing good work to help respond to dangers around and support them and work with them. Bo, did you have your hand up? We're lucky to live in Chicago and Hawaii, too, because there's so much good work being done in the city. fifth-graders from the Leadership Village Academy, which is an independent elementary school that has as part of their curriculum that kids participating, well, design and develop their own grassroots campaigns.

[60:12]

Now, this group of fifth-graders, Douglas Park is in the neighborhood of their school, and they had always assumed that But it was actually Stephen Douglas. And so they did all this research. So their goal was to change the name of the park from Douglas Park for Stephen to Douglas Park for Frederick. And to add the S, that was the thing. Douglas with two S's. But then they were doing research and they found that Frederick Douglass' wife was a major, major sort of, obviously, but it's under kind of,

[61:25]

Frederick Douglass Park. And after all these years of presenting to the Cook County, the Park District, and being ignored, you know, there's video of these Park District commissioners being like, you guys are cute, literally, thank you for coming. But they won. And so this kind of stuff is happening. And it was a good reminder for me, too, that these kids just these young people are out here, here, like doing a lot of cool, interesting, fearless, you know, despite being black in the city of Chicago, work. And so, I don't know, it's just, we don't have to, and Taigan, you've reminded me of this a lot of times, we don't have to go and reinvent the wheel, there's so much work of help.

[62:45]

Thank you very much, bro. That's a wonderful example. But when you mentioned fifth graders, sorry, I couldn't help but think of the fourth graders who were massacred in Baltimore, Texas, thanks to these politicians who want to allow 18 year olds to have assault rifles. Anyway, there's lots of, but young people are doing a lot of good because young people knows that their future, and by young people, I'm including some of you here, knows that their futures are determined by what happens to the climate, what happens to U.S. government system and so forth. So yeah, as an elder person, I look to the young for inspiration, Do you have a comment, Dylan?

[63:46]

I have two. One's on Angels in America and one's on the Guideposts of Silent Elimination. So I watched, my roommate is going through a difficult time right now. So we watched Angels in America together, which is a Tony Kushner play, but there's an HBO version of Meryl Streep and Al Pacino that's unbelievable and really, really great. But that play demonstrates the transformative potential of art in how we are able to imagine ourselves not only as interconnected, but as complex beings that are capable of harming each other while still being beings that are worth care and love.

[64:52]

It's amazing because many of the protagonists in that play, you realize, are doing things that are really harmful. Abandoning their partner when they're dying of AIDS, helping to write decisions that are oppressive. Other examples I could give, but these, or being the real life lawyer, Roy Cohn, is in a play as a character, and he's responsible for a lot of very horrific and oppressive decisions. But you also see, the play does a great job of showing you why it's worth it, why you still care about it. as people and how they are attempting to express love for each other in the ways that they know how.

[66:00]

And that's our lives. That's the truth. It's not that all the good people are over here and all the bad people are over here and just be on the good team. That's what we're all trying to do. And so I try to keep that in mind with my interactions with anybody, not to write anybody off or that anybody's beyond caring about. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they have a... When Roy Cohn dies in the play, they do a Jewish blessing for him. And like, and that play's been done, I don't know how many times, you know, but like, so he's gotten that blessing done for him thousands and thousands and thousands of times now, you know, despite all the horrible things he did. So just to accent that point about, it's about taking care of the actions that we do and not about writing people off as bad people.

[67:05]

And The other point I wanted to make was about the guideposts on illumination. I think the last line is transmitted to all directions without desiring to gain credit. And I was thinking about that line while you're talking to Eileen, because when we're doing this work of trying to be part of the transformative process of healing the country or healing the world or healing our community or the city, Part of the letting go of that work, I believe, is that you have to be able to accept letting go of being aware that it actually worked, or that it's finished, or that someone's going to thank you for it, or someone's going to say, wow, thanks to you, this happened. Really. that it's important to, and I think this talk helped me understand that line, because it's not possible to, it's still time to do that work, even when you can't know if it's done, or if someone's gonna thank you.

[68:24]

about it or if you feel like it's going to be enough, you know, that like part of the, I believe, part of the process of doing that good work is being willing to persistently do it without trying to, without, without, and do it without knowing that no one may ever, no one may ever know about it. And that there's lots of heroes that we never, we don't know about that, you know, we're saving lives in prisoner camps and all that, you know? you know, without desiring to gain credit is to help teach us to just, to do that work without trying to, without knowing that we might not, we might not know that it worked, quote unquote, to still do that. Thank you, Dawn. Yeah, the other, and the other side of that is that people have worked very hard for many years and helped produce

[69:28]

some significant change and never saw it. All the generations of people who worked for abolition of slavery and didn't see that happen. All the women who marched in suffragette marches trying to get women the right to vote. Now women have the right to vote. The Supreme Court's been trying to abolish that too. But you don't necessarily see positive results of the work we do. Thank you so much. I want to just check if there's anybody on Zoom who has any comments. Is there anybody on Zoom who's from outside Illinois or Chicago? Thank you all. Oh, yeah. Did you remember the other thing? I remembered something. I'm not sure it's the same thing. But I read a story at Katrina, where there's some people, two guys that lived, you know, a couple of states away.

[70:38]

And the minute that Katrina hit, they made plans to go. And they decided that they would be able to do something. They didn't know what they just got in their car and went out there to see what they could do to help. I don't know who they were. Anyway, that's what I do remember. Yeah, I think there were numbers of people who responded to Hurricane Katrina that way. Numbers of people who have responded to other disasters. And now many people who are responding to the actions of this horrible Supreme Court all over the country. And you know, the other thing that Dylan was saying is not to give up on anybody. There are all kinds of stories of people transformed, people who've done terrible things, like Roy Cohn, but then, you know, maybe all of the blessings for him and all those versions of angels in America helped mitigate this karma, which included mentoring Donald Trump.

[71:49]

Anyway, there's so many examples. I've talked about this, but do you all know who Angulimala is? No? Angulimala was one of the Buddha's main disciples. He became an arhat, a personally fully enlightened one. But his name comes from his record as a serial killer. He had a mala. beads that were made up of fingers, one finger each of his victims. And as he was about to kill his hundredth person, he saw the Buddha and went to go after the Buddha to get another finger. And the Buddha, and he said to the Buddha, stop. The Buddha turned around and said, no, you stop.

[72:50]

So that's one example. There's many examples. Do any of you know the song Amazing Grace? That was written by a ship captain who was responsible for bringing many slaves, many Africans to America into slavery. And he was transported. He felt saved, much like him. So yes, Dylan, thank you. Not to give up on anything. OK, any other comments, responses? Yeah, Brian. Based on that, I remember reading an Instagram at a Zen temple.

[73:56]

And one of his Sangha members, who came to him complaining of another Sangha member, of that other person's behavior, et cetera. And John Dadaluri's response was, in our bodhisattva vow, we vow to save all beings. Isn't this person also among all beings? And so that idea of inclusiveness in our efforts to not see, again, another, but to see them as potentially changeable through compassion. Thank you. Yes. There are numbers of stories in Zanwar about this.

[74:33]

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